Fort Myers mom calls Christmas jar a Christmas miracle

FORT MYERS: A Fort Myers mother says her story proves that Christmas miracles really do happen. The single mother discovered something on her doorstep that came from a complete stranger and it is all part of a nationwide movement.

Jennifer Park's life is filled with little surprises, but the single mom was in for a surprise she'll never forget last week when she came home to find an unsigned gift bag on her doorstep.

Inside the bag was a jar filled with money - more than $175.

"Trying to pick it up and get it though the door we couldn't even lift it," she said. "I was in total shock. I had no idea where it would have come from."

Also in the bag was a novel called "Christmas Jars" - a fictional story about a woman Park says she can relate to.

"If you passed her on the street you would never know that she's having any kind of trouble, but somebody saw her. Somebody thought that she needed something and left a Christmas jar for her," Parks said.

Monday night, Parks hesitantly admitted to us something even her family doesn't know. Earlier this month, she was laid off. And she said without work, she'll soon be struggling to care for her boys.

"I'm the one person that is there for them 2,000 percent of the time, so it weighs on me every minute," she said.

The money in the jar won't turn her life around, but she says the message it sends already has.

"There are still good people in the world," she said. "No matter how lonely you may feel, or how alone you may feel, or how you feel the weight of the world is on your shoulders, there are people out there that you don't know about that are looking out for you."

Now Parks is part of a nationwide pay-it-forward movement. Since the book was published in 2005, there have been thousands of Christmas jar reports

"There are people out there that will help you if you need it, and you don't even have to ask for it," she said.